


baby, it’s cold outside

by AlphaBanana



Category: Shepherds of Haven - Lena Nguyen
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28196937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaBanana/pseuds/AlphaBanana
Summary: Happy Wintersun!
Relationships: Trouble Alder/Main Character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	baby, it’s cold outside

_ When Trouble gets his hands on Blade, he’ll _ —

Well. That doesn’t really bear thinking about. But the sentiment is still the same, as the blizzard outside Haven’s walls worsens and he and Lori shiver into their ahfuri.

There aren’t many things he does better than Lori, but for whatever harm the Equalists wrought, his eyes are sharper than hers, and he spots the cave before her, waves her over into the dark. Her witchlight is bright enough to see that they do not have any company, casting deep shadows where the light does not reach.

Lori takes down her hood, and Trouble watches her scowl as she tries to brush snowflakes out of wild, golden curls. He moves to help her, calloused thumb lingering near her cheekbone, and all at once her cheeks bloom scarlet, at such a speed that he worries she is already becoming ill, even as she turns from him with a stammer.

Any fuel they might have used for a fire is too wet, and even her flames seem to sputter in the punishing cold - and if her face was scarlet before, it is rapidly turning  _ blue _ .

Trouble starts to peel his cloak off of his broad frame, stopping in his tracks when she snaps at him.

“Don’t be  _ ridiculous _ .” She is  _ angry _ , golden eyes flashing as she takes his cloak from his grasp and pulls it tight enough around him to make him choke. “You’re not catching your death on my account. You’re too—” And she stops then, eyes wide as if she expects some kind of reprimand, but he is too bound up in counting the freckles on the bridge of her nose.

“Too what?” At his question, Lori seems to have also realised just how close they are, and she flushes again for a reason he can’t quite work out.

“Never mind. Sit down a minute.” He obeys, without question, as he always has with her.

Lori thinks for another moment, then has the  _ audacity _ to take off her cloak - he starts to give as good as he just got, before realising that she is burrowing under his cloak, using hers as a blanket to cover both of them.

To fit under the cloaks, they have to press close to each other, close enough to share a breath. One such breath of his brushes along her cheekbone, makes her shiver against him and dislodges an unruly curl. He tucks it behind her ear, letting his fingertips linger against the warmth of her blush for a moment before he jerks back as if burned.  _ Strange _ .

Lori cannot meet his eyes and he worries that he has hurt her somehow, that—

But he need not have worried, as she burrows into the crook of his neck, and her lips and nose are  _ freezing  _ against his pulse point.

“ _ Oh _ —” A gasp leaves him against his will, and he would be lying if he said it was  _ just _ from the cold.

“Are you alright?” Lori looks up at him from beneath thick lashes, bats them once, twice - a perfect picture of innocence.

“You know damn well, you  _ fiend _ .” And she offers him a mischievous grin as she burrows into him again, and something seems to slot into place, even if he would fail time and time again to describe it to another. This feels  _ right _ , even when so much of the world outside is wrong.


End file.
